Blue Cheese Leek Tarts (Success) and Spinach Pancakes (Fail)

Well, friends, I warned you. When you experiment, there are successes and failures. I’ve been working my way through this book I checked out from the library called “Fuss Free Foods for Babies and Toddlers”. Maybe I’ll get Mason to eat a veggie other than peas and corn. That was the thought.

The Success: Blue Cheese Leek Tarts

CRUSTS:
1 1/2 cups flour (I used whole wheat, but it calls for all-purpose)
6 T butter
pinch of salt
6-7 T water
1) Put flour and salt in a bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter until flour resembles breadcrumbs.
2) Mix in water 1 T at a time until dough becomes smooth.
3) Knead lightly and dump onto floured surface. Roll out with a floured rolling pin until very thin.
4) Use some sort of round object (large coffee cup works well) to cut out circles. Place circles into cups of a muffin tin (regular size… none of those ginormous or mini ones). Press dough down and onto sides as shown below.

12 tarts fed my family 2 meals. They freeze well, so it’s a nice thing to have in case you get home an hour late and have a starving child. Even Mason liked it! I think you could substitute your own fillers too (broccoli and cheddar, sausage and mushroom, etc.). Highly recommended!

Failure: Spinach Pancakes.
I’ll spare you the recipe. No idea why I thought that “Spinach Pancakes” would be good. They ended up being another “meat plop incident” (a phrase my dear husband uses to refer to the time early in our marriage when I attempted to make meatballs and they ended up looking like piles of meat). Except, unlike meat plops, this didn’t taste good either. To us. Mason enjoyed it thoroughly, so I froze the remainder of the meal for him and made Mark and I a frozen pizza. Only look at the pictures below if you have a strong stomach.

Gross. (That stuff on top was supposed to be inside, but the pancake was more of a panplop.)